Spontaneous Camping Trip

So this past weekend most of the teachers went to Cali. Dereek and I are a bit tight on cash until he gets a pay check (yay beginning of October!) so we decided to stay around here and do a day trip to Salento. On Saturday morning, we weren't quite sure if maybe we wanted to spend the night there or come back, so we packed up some over night things just in case. We took a bus at about 11:30am to Salento. It was pretty chilly when we got there and a little drizzly. We walked around the shops and checked out the views and had a delicious lunch. We were really enjoying our time there so we started asking around for places to stay. We were directed to a hostel, estrella de agua, that we were told had tents we could rent and room on their property to camp. The hostel was really cool looking, the people really nice, and totally in our budget, so we changed our bus tickets and decided to stay the night. We spent the rest of the night wandering around, doing a little bit of hiking through some trails we found, and having dinner at a really cool restaurant/bar.

We spent the night at the hostel in the tent and it poured! The bottom near our heads got a little bit wet, but not too bad for how much it rained all night. The next morning we headed out for another walk. We came across a few other hostels out in the country side more outside of the city. We really liked one of them that had a super hippie vibe. The guy who owned it was very nice and the views from their camping grounds were incredible. We had perfect views of the snow covered mountains and he had a spot for a fire pit all set up. We're hoping to invest in a tent and do lots of camping while living here in Colombia. We're also hoping to climb those snow covered mountains and have gotten some price quotes on guides already. Afterwards we walked back and had a huge breakfast at a foreigner owned place called "brunch." The food was excellent and the place was awesome with the walls being completely drawn on and signed by all the travelers who come through.

It was a truly fantastic weekend. Dereek and I both really enjoy Salento and it's such an easy trip for a weekend. I have a feeling we will be spending quite a few weekends there. Check out the pics! =)

Views in the morning. A little cloudy and overcast

One of the few pictures we have of both of us. We need to try and get more together. =) 

Dereek found lots of friendly kitties

It was raining, so we stopped at this place and had some delicious warm coffee.

We went back to see if it was clearer, and it was! Nicer views after the rain.

We did a nice little hike on this trail

Views of Salento right before sunset

Great sunset over the town

Again...

When we were walking around we spotted this little house. I really want to be in that room with the light on. I think it'd be gorgeous. 

We walked around a bit at night and I snapped this cool looking picture of the main street

Back at the hostel with another kitty and our tent

Walking around on Sunday morning

So much green

This is the entrance to the hostel we want to camp at next time

A little hard to see because it's cloudy, but from the camp grounds of Yambolombia we could see these snow covered mountains

Right before we left I had to take some pictures of the doors

They're all wooden and painted pretty colors. 

So that's about it for now. We're getting close to October break so hopefully, even though Dereek is most likely working, the two of us can find some cool things to do then.